Keys to effective detection using canine finders

In previous posts we started talking about the Dogs for conservation. These canine friends and finders, who with their great olfactory skills, are a tool for achieving incredible results in conservation, helping us to improve the location of different animal or plant species. Specifically, we are talking about detection dogs in wind farms, whose work makes it possible to increase accuracy in estimating mortality, maximizing the location of animals that have collided with wind turbines and thus obtaining data that better reflect the reality of what happened inside these renewable energy parks.

Canine finders: The magic of smell

There are several studies that show how highly efficient dogs are. His ability in the face of human skills is, as far as the pursuit of different objectives is concerned, totally amazing. Among the studies that have been carried out is the work carried out by Ideas MedioAmbiental last year (Domínguez del Valle et al., 2020). It analyzes those factors that may affect the location of corpses in wind farms, both in human search engines and in canine prospectors. This study shows the superiority of dogs in the detection of these objectives, whose performance in addition, in this study, remains high regardless of the size of the samples, the characteristics of the vegetation or the climatic conditions. In contrast, human trackers showed a lower body location rate that was considerably reduced by factors such as the size of the corpses and the density of vegetation.

Our work in detection

However, not all the success in the detection process is the result of the dog's work. The human role in the search work is essential for the performance of our canine companion to be as efficient as possible.

The guide must be mentally and physically prepared for the work he is going to do during long days of fieldwork in the study area, remaining alert to the signals that the dog may emit. The guide must be perfectly familiar with the body language and personality of his canine companion, solving problems before they even occur, ensuring the dog's motivation and good physical condition, and focusing on environmental conditions that may affect detection, minimizing these factors and thus ensuring the effective search and safety of the animal.

On the other hand, our work includes planning the search work well before going to the field. In this way, we can maximize the number of locations in the shortest possible time, with the resources available and making the most of the dog's working time. This is known as Search Theory, was developed by Koopman (1946, 1980) and has its roots in the Second World War, forming part of a larger discipline called Operations Research, whose objective is to find the most efficient and effective way to carry out rescue operations.

This theory uses two very useful concepts to consider when creating a specific search strategy with dogs (Glen & Clare, 2018). The coverage, which is the area over which the search will be performed compared to the total area; and the effective scan width, which is the distance to each side of the search engine where the number of objects lost within the band is equal to the number of objects found outside the band.

This sweep width and coverage will be determined by the type of object to be located (differences in species, degree of decomposition and the size of the corpses), the capacity of the tracker (motivation, fatigue, etc.), climatic conditions (differences in the dispersion of odors depending on temperature, humidity and speed, and direction of the wind) and terrain conditions (type of vegetation, unevenness in the terrain, etc.).

To continue working...

Studies such as the one carried out by Ideas help us to better understand these patterns that can affect the effectiveness of our canine finders, and in this way, to solve these handicaps with good work planning and excellent communication in the dog-guide binomial.

Bibliography

Dominguez del Valle, Jon & Cervantes Peralta, Francisco & Arjona, Marisa. (2020). Factors affecting carcass detection at wind farms using dogs and human searchers. Journal of Applied Ecology. 57. 1926-1935. 10.1111/1365-2664.13714.

Glen, Al & Veltman, Clare. (2018). Search strategies for conservation detection dogs. Wildlife Biology. 2018. wlb.00393. 10.2981/wlb.00393.

Koopman, B.O. (1946). Search and screening. Operations Evaluations Grp Rep. no. 56. Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, VA.

Koopman, B.O. (1980). Search and screening: general principles with historical applications. Pergamon Press.